


A Chance Meeting

by I May Age Regress (shnuffeluv)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: American Sign Language, Conventions, Deaf Clint Barton, Gen, Non-Sexual Age Play, POV Bruce Banner, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 15:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17706752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/I%20May%20Age%20Regress
Summary: Bruce goes to a convention for regressors and meets Clint.





	A Chance Meeting

Bruce was wandering the halls of the hotel, observing everyone at the convention. He enjoyed this, really, he did, but it was still so hard for him to let his guard down, even surrounded by other littles. He had been looking for something to eat, and had gotten distracted somewhere along the way to the food vendors. Now he was just people watching as he wandered around. He had noticed this one girl who was wearing a onesie that looked really cute when he smacked into someone else walking his way. "Ow! Watch it!" the guy snapped.

"Sorry," Bruce said, taking a couple steps back. The guy was rubbing his shoulder and pouting, and Bruce noticed he was wearing hearing aids. He realized the man might not be able to hear him so he signed instead. "Sorry."

The guy looked surprised, a genuine smile taking place of his pout. "Someone else here knows ASL! Nice!" he signed, gestures wider than strictly necessary, betraying his excitement.

Bruce offered him a hesitant smile and signed, "My name's Bruce. What's yours?"

"Clint," he signed. "Are you here as a little or a caregiver?"

"Little. I'm about four," Bruce signed back.

"Me too. Although I sit around six mostly," Clint signed back.

Bruce offered him a grin and asked, "Do you want to talk somewhere quieter? Maybe over lunch?"

Clint shrugged and signed back, "Why not?"

The two of them walked toward the food vendors and Bruce ordered a slice of New York style pizza, while Clint went to one of the smaller vendors and bought a ham and cheese sandwich. They sat down beyond the vendors, and Bruce could hear his ears feeling stuffy after being surrounded by so many loud people for hours. His voice sounded off to himself as he said, "So, Clint," grabbing the man's attention.

"We can wait until your ears feel better, man," Clint said around bites of his sandwich. "I heard naturally once upon a time, too. I know what it feels like to have your own voice sound weird, and I don't want that to be what you focus on while we talk."

"Fair enough," Bruce said, a little bewildered.

As they sat in the back, Bruce's ears slowly started to clear up more, and he turned to Clint. "So. How long have you known that you're a regressor?"

Clint shrugged. "Most of my life, I guess. Found out when I was a teen, and I'm like, a thirty-something now on paper."

Bruce nodded. "I didn't know what this was for a long time. I only found out about it maybe six months ago. I saw this convention and I figured it couldn't hurt to show up, try and make new friends, you know?"

"Yeah," Clint said, nodding. "You're pretty brave, though. I wouldn't have done something like this only knowing about age regression for six months. Diving in head-first like that...that's impressive."

"If I didn't dive in head-first I'd never dive in at all," Bruce said with a shrug. "I don't really think it's that impressive."

Clint shrugged. "Agree to disagree, then?" he proposed.

"Sure," Bruce sighed.

Both of them finished their lunches and Clint had a smile on his face as he threw away his trash. "Have you gone into the great room yet?" he asked.

"No, there were a lot of people and I didn't know any of them," Bruce said back.

Clint switched to signing as they got back into the crowd. "Do you want to go in with me?"

"Why not?" Bruce signed with a small smile.

The two made their way through the throngs of people to the great room, and Bruce's eyes widened at the sight. There was a giant inflatable obstacle course, bouncy castles, and at least one or two trampolines. He looked at Clint in shock, a smile growing on his face.

"Let's try the obstacle course!" Clint signed, grin wide.

"Okay!" Bruce signed back.

The two of them got in line for the obstacle course, signing animatedly to each other. Clint had apparently talked to a few people who had gone through the course already, and it was fun but brutal. Bruce just kept agreeing and nodding along and saying how excited he was.

When it was their turn to go in, they climbed on right away and made their way through the first turn with little difficulty. But they kept on goofing off and laughing at each others' antics, and were panting by the time they got through the next stretch. They paused at one of the edges, Clint laughing hard and Bruce tearing up in his giggles.

"Having fun?" Clint asked.

"Lots of fun!" Bruce agreed.

The two continued forward, signing as they went, and when they couldn't sign, they just let the shouts and hollers of others drown out any thoughts in their heads. As they made it to the end of the course, Bruce sighed, nearly collapsing on the solid ground once they got off the structure. "My legs feel like Jell-O," he signed.

Clint laughed and helped him walk away to a point where they could grab water. "That was fun!" Clint said. "Are you here the whole weekend?"

Bruce shook his head. "Just today. I have to head home to Ohio tomorrow, it's a long drive."

Clint looked surprised. "I live in Ohio too! I have a farm that my wife and kids and I all work on. Maybe we could visit each other sometime?"

Bruce grinned. "I'd like that a lot! Should we exchange phone numbers?"

Clint eagerly nodded, and they agreed to keep in touch after the day was over. Until then, though, they agreed to hang out together as they explored what else the convention had to offer. It was beyond exciting for both of them, and they kept signing to each other throughout the day about how glad each of them were that they had a new friend who knew about their regression and didn't judge.


End file.
